


i'm getting lost on you (you got me doing things i never thought i'd do)

by maybankiara (juggyjones)



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Future Fic, JJ Asks Kie Out, JJ-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24225913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggyjones/pseuds/maybankiara
Summary: Neither of them says anything for a short while. JJ doesn’t know what’s going on, because she hasn’t really said anything, but he isn’t quite opposed to the situation.They’ve been close before. Closer, even. But it has never felt like this – so intimate.If either of them moved a few inches, their lips would be touching.When she finally says something, it’s so quiet he almost doesn’t hear. ‘I thought you didn’t like me anymore.’— in which jj finally grows a pair and asks kiara out.
Relationships: JJ Maybank/Kiara Carrera
Comments: 21
Kudos: 211





	i'm getting lost on you (you got me doing things i never thought i'd do)

**Author's Note:**

> my first obx fic! i was going to post something else first, but it's still in the works, so this will do.

_No Pogue-on-Pogue macking;_ that was the rule number one. It was a rule they’d established a long time ago, when they were just kids, and when Kiara had just joined. Crushes or love hadn’t been on any of their minds, but rules had to be set, so they set them.

Years went by, and somehow they all became entranced by Kiara. It wasn’t just that she was the only girl in their group of boys; it wasn’t just that she was forbidden; it wasn’t just that she didn’t want any of them.

Or at least for JJ, it wasn’t that.

She was the first girl he started flirting with. They were barely thirteen, and JJ liked it when she blushed and rolled her eyes at him, so he kept it going. He got better at it, to the point where he was better than most boys their age.

She was the first girl he kissed, too. It was a dare, and it was a horrible, awkward, flimsy and clumsy first kiss, but it was the one JJ had never forgotten. He got a lot better at kissing since then, but that was the only time he’d ever kissed her.

Kiara was always there. Kiara was someone he could always like at a safe distance, where lines between flirting and being overly friendly were blurred just enough.

But now it’s the summer before university, they are almost eighteen, and Kiara is going away sooner rather than later.

Her father opens the door. His eyes check JJ up and down, and he frowns. ‘Kiara! It’s for you!’

‘Thanks, Mr. C.’

Mike Carrera closes the door and JJ is left standing outside.

Panic washes over him. What if Kiara doesn’t like it? What if he’s about to screw everything up? Maybe he doesn’t look good enough, maybe she still has feelings for Pope, or John B, has she ever looked at him the way he looks at her?

He walks in the spot, fingers in his mouth and teeth tugging at the nail bed.

This was a big mistake.

The flowers are too much. Kiara doesn’t like people who aren’t environmentally friendly. Is picking flowers environmentally unfriendly? Is she going to get mad at him over this?

He doesn’t think he could stand her getting mad at him.

‘JJ! What’s happening?’

JJ stops in his tracks, and looks at the porch.

Kiara is standing there, wearing grey shorts and a plum tank top. Her hair is in a half-up do, and her skin is glistening with a sheer layer of sweat that’s a consequence of one of the hottest days Outer Banks has seen this summer. She’s half leaning out of the door, with one of her hands on the door frame, the other running through her hair.

It was enough to make him remember why he chose to take this shot.

‘JJ,’ she says, softly. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘What?’

‘You’re pacing like crazy. Did something happen? Are you okay? What’s with the flowers?’

It’s only now, standing five feet away from her, that JJ notices the worry in her face. It’s in the slight wrinkles on her forehead and the pout of her lips, and how she tilts her head and looks him up and down, in a way that he knows means she’s looking for any new bruises decorating his body.

JJ smiles. His shoulders relax and there’s a spring in his step when he comes closer.

‘Everything’s good,’ he says. She squints at him, so he adds, ‘I promise.’

‘Okay… What’s with the flowers, then?’

‘Oh!’ He stretches his arms towards her, the bouquet almost hitting her in the stomach. ‘These are for you.’

‘For me?’

‘Yeah,’ says JJ. ‘I got them for you.’

Kiara takes them and he sees the familiar redness across her cheeks, one that he hasn’t managed to achieve in longer than he’d like to admit. She smiles, sheepishly, and leans against the door frame.

Somewhere in the distance, crickets are chirping.

She thanks him quietly.

JJ sighs and takes a step closer, until they’re merely a feet apart. Kiara doesn’t flinch, as she’s used to him being in everyone’s personal space, but she looks a little surprised by the action.

A strand of her hair falls in front of her face and, without thinking, JJ’s finger tucks it behind her ear.

When his hand lingers on her neck, right below her ear, he wishes he could do more than just tuck her hair.

But he doesn’t. He isn’t being any more reckless tonight than he already is. Instead, he lets his hand fall back into his pocket, and gives Kiara a warm smile.

His eyes flicker to her lips, but that’s something he can’t control. He spent one too many night wondering if they would taste the same as they did all those years ago.

‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘if this is too much.’

‘JJ—’

‘No, listen. I know there’s the rule about no Pogue-macking, and I know both you and I have been proud of how independent we are, and I respect that.’ His smile falters, but he looks at Kiara’s face, and lets himself not worry for a hot second. ‘I just wanted to tell you that I see you as more than just a friend, Kie. And obviously, I totally respect your feelings, whatever they are, because you know, bros before hos or whatever. I just wanted you to know. Before you leave. That I’m in love with you.’

JJ closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, already preparing for the inevitable rejection.

He wasn’t supposed to do this. He wasn’t supposed to spill his guts to her, because that could only freak her out.

When he starts shaking, he bits his lip. In his pockets, his fingers are fidgeting, and he starts finding the crickets a comic addition to the situation.

Well. He knew he’d fuck this up.

‘Open your eyes, JJ.’

He does.

Kiara is looking at him with a face that he can’t really read, but she’s holding the bouquet close to her chest, so maybe that’s a good sign. Her eyes are gazing into his and he begins to wonder what she’s searching for.

A soft breeze passes between them, and her hair sways on the wind a little. She looks so soft, so beautiful in that moment – all JJ wants her is to know that. To know how beautiful she is, both on the outside and the inside.

So he says it.

‘It’s not – It’s not just about the way you look, Kie, I hope you know that.’ His fingers tuck the wind-swept strands away, and this time, he lets his hand linger on her neck with no plans of moving it away. ‘You’ve been there for me when I needed you. You banter me like no one else does, and you call me out on my shit when John B and Pope can’t be bothered. I love riling you up because I love when you get protective of the world, when you talk about your ideas to save it. I just… I just wanted you to know that.’

She smiles, laughs a little, too, and JJ feels her breath hot against his own. He’s not sure if it’s the light, or if there’s a twinkle in her eyes.

‘I never took you for such a sap, JJ.’

He leans his head back and groans, but when he looks back, she’s smiling even wider. His eyes fall to the strap of her top and he plays with it, twirling it around his fingers, trying to keep his mind away from thinking about how easy it would be just to take it off.

Neither of them says anything for a short while. JJ doesn’t know what’s going on, because she hasn’t really said anything, but he isn’t quite opposed to the situation.

They’ve been close before. Closer, even. But it has never felt like this – so intimate.

If either of them moved a few inches, their lips would be touching.

When she finally says something, it’s so quiet he almost doesn’t hear. ‘I thought you didn’t like me anymore.’

JJ looks back at her, brows furrowed, head tilted. ‘What?’

‘When John B kissed me, and then everything with Pope happened.’ Kiara bites her lip and looks away, and JJ is now certain there’s a twinkle in her eyes. ‘I thought you moved on, and at first I was happy, but then I realised how much I miss you flirting with me and dancing with me and complimenting me and – and –’

‘I’m here, now,’ he says. ‘I never stopped liking you. I tried, but I couldn’t.’

She looks back at him, hopeful, and JJ can barely hold himself from kissing her full on the mouth, like he’s been dreaming of all these years. The realisation of the meaning of her words hits him like a truck and he steps back, almost, gasping.

Kiara’s hand catches his, the one that’s still on her neck. Her palm is warm and her fingers are tiny compared to his, and seeing them together like that is yet another blow.

‘JJ, are you okay?’

He clenches his teeth, and nods. If he opens his mouth, he’ll kiss her, and he doesn’t know if she wants it.

That’s when he realised that he didn’t actually believe this would go well, and it did, and he _isn’t fucking prepared for this._

What do you do when you confess your feelings to someone and they love you back?

He laughs, a little, nervously. ‘I was actually supposed to just ask you out. Not confess my feelings.’

‘That’s okay. It’s not too late.’

‘For what?’

‘Asking me out,’ Kiara says, sheepishly, ‘if that’s what you want.’

‘Oh.’

For a brief moment, JJ’s brain just… freezes. He stares at Kie and there’s a lot of things he’s thinking of doing, but formulating a question that he never even gave a thought about (because he never even thought he’d get the chance to) is not one of them.

‘Um.’

Kiara laughs. ‘JJ, are you broken?’

‘Maybe,’ he says. ‘A little bit.’

‘Okay.’

Taking his hand in hers, she takes it off her neck as she crouches and places the bouquet on the floor. She straightens her back and closes the distance between them and _oh no, JJ is definitely thinking all the wrong thoughts_ and wraps her arms around his neck, the way she never has.

The way he hasn’t even seen her do to Pope, for those brief three weeks they tried being a thing two years ago.

No, this is a different, this is for JJ only, it’s intimate and possessive at the same time, and her lips are _so close that—_

Kiara brushes her lips against his, so softly he barely feels it.

‘Kie,’ he whispers.

Her voice is just as quiet. ‘Yes?’

JJ’s hands wrap around her torso and press her against him. He leaves one hand at the small of her back, drawing circles with his thumb, and brings the other one to her ear, to get her hair out of the way for the third time in fifteen minutes. ‘You have hair all over your face.’

She laughs at that and buries her head in his chest. It’s so soft and natural and earnest that he almost melts into the touch, seen and felt and _understood and accepted_ for the first time.

He places a finger under her chin and lifts it, gazing into her eyes with a little more adoration he think he should – but he can’t help it. Not anymore. Not when his world is in the palm of his hand.

So he says, quietly, ‘I love you.’

And then kisses her, softly. It’s a chaste kiss, and he sets rain to the flames within him, tells them to wait.

When they part, JJ sees the world in a new light.

Brighter, for starters, and maybe not out to get him.

‘Kiara Carrera,’ he begins, ‘do you want to go on a date with me?’

‘I would love to.’

Kiara leans in for a kiss but he pulls back, letting go of her instead. When she looks at him, puzzled, he walks off the porch backwards, grinning at her wider than he thinks he’s ever grinned.

‘That’s all you’re getting for now,’ he tells her. ‘I’m a reserved man.’

She flips him off and she laughs, and something makes him think that maybe this wasn’t a dumb idea. Maybe they were just the same, only better. Maybe he didn’t fuck everything up.

Maybe for the first time in his life, he did the right thing.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed it! you can come hang out with me on my [tumblr](https://maybankiara.tumblr.com), or request a fic if you'd like to. i'm always looking for inspiration!


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